S omehow this column always returns to Microsoft and this month is no different as readers have been sending in queries about Microsoft Publisher. With big hitters like Adobe InDesign and QuarkXpress dominating the design platform, Microsoft Publisher tends to gather dust, but if you are a home user with limited funds and have the Office Suite on the computer, there is absolutely no reason not to make use of it. Anyone with limited design experience who wants to create and design text and/or graphic layouts will find Publisher easy to use and adequate for the job.
As would be expected from writers the main focus of our queries is on importing, formatting and generally working with text to produce books for print and online output.
Q After years of fighting my way through Microsoft Word I recently found that the new Office suite contains Microsoft Publisher. Apparently this has far better options for creating a book layout than its counterpart Word. Publisher would not be needed for anything complex, it would be solely for working on my own personal writing projects. As it looks and works completely differently, and before investing too much time with it, I wondered if you thought it was worth learning?